Front End Rebuild
01 Nov 2021 - mdr
So the front end was a bit of a mess. I had all intentions of just keeping the manual steering box and rebuilding the trunnions, probably throwing some scarebird brakes and lowering springs. Once I had the motor in, that pretty much nuked those plans.
The 1JZ’s oil pan plopped down right where the steering box and linkages were. That made having a steering box out of the question, it wasn’t going to fit with the AC Compressor and none of the linkages fit. I mocked up a steering rack but it would have sat way too low to clear the oil pan. I thought about rebuilding the cross member to make room for all this, but at that point, it just made more sense to throw a mustang II front end in there.
I’ve never done one of these front ends before so it was a bit of trial and error. I had to notch out the front rails a bit to make room for the springs. I added a fairly substantial gusset on the bottom of the rail because that seemed like the thickest part of the rail, then added gussets on the sides too. The front end (of the car) was slightly tweaked, meaning it wasn’t square or plumb. It may have always been like that, who knows. It wasn’t enough to worry about but I did have to split the difference a few times when lining up the front end.
I didn’t want the engine bay to look all chopped up, so I only cut away just enough of the towers to fit the new front end.
The kit came with a 16:1 steering rack which was nearly undriveable on the streets. I switched out to a 20:1 and it’s loads better. I wanted to add electric power steering but I’m not sure where I could fit it… I’ll keep thinking about it for a future update though.
Overall it drives surprisingly well! I just eyeball aligned it with some levels for now but it’s not bad.
